Search - Jackie Ryan with John Clayton & Friends :: Listen Here

Seven-time Grammy nominee and Grammy Award winner John Clayton joins Jackie Ryan (considered by Jazz Times to be ''one of the outstanding jazz vocalists of her generation and, quite possibly, of all time - rivaling the dexterous sass Sarah Vaughan and the scintillating verve of Diana Krall'') to deliver a tour de force through a myriad of jazz idioms - from blues & gospel flavored jazz gems, to sultry & sassy love songs, a luscious Spanish ballad, and a sensational original penned by lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman (multiple Grammy, Emmy & Acadamy Award nominees: The Way We Were, Windmills of Your Mind, You Don't Bring Me Flowers) - all backed by a host of the nation's leading artists and 3-time Grammy nominee piano phenomenon Gerald Clayton.Ms. Ryan has been the featured artist on NPR, Primetime A&E, CNN TV en Espanol, and Voice of America. Her previous CDs have received 4-Star reviews from Downbeat and AMG and have dominated the #1 slot on Jazz Week's industry-standard nationwide chart for months. This is Jackie's finest outing to date.With concert tours throughout Asia, Australia, and Europe (such as eight years at London's famed Ronnie Scott's Club) and with festivals at home such as Telluride, Monterey, and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and packed concerts at New York's Birdland, Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Florida's Broward Center, and the San Francisco Bay Area's Yoshi's - Jackie has garnered well-earned world-wide recognition.But it is not by accident that her cross-cultural appeal ''bridges the gap between both geography and generations,'' as BILLBOARD so aptly put it. Part Irish, part Mexican, she was born into it. Her father was of Irish descent, born in San Francisco's Butchertown, working night shifts, educating himself in Latin and singing classical pieces at home in his trained baritone. Her mother (who sang operettas at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara) was Mexican and crooned Spanish folk songs to her as a child. Jackie lost her mother at the age of 15 and, in memory, always includes a Spanish song in her CDs - in this case, the soaring ballad, La Puerta.Her rousing rendition of The Gypsy In My Soul perfectly reflects Jackie's spirited exploratory nature. Surely there must be a gypsy in her soul - as evidenced not only by the far-reaching range of musical territory she covers in this CD, but also by her lifelong love of jazz in all its manifold permutations. And, as you ''Listen Here,'' you will be joining her on an adventurous journey - from the down home bluesiness of Comin' Home Baby and the gospel-tinged Accentuate The Positive, to the rarified operatic realms of an American classic, I Loves You Porgy, the Spanish laminations of La Puerta and the pulsating samba rhythms of To The Ends Of The Earth.Listen Here is her tribute to some of her favorite lyricists - such as Abbey Lincoln's liberation of life's passions in Throw It Away and the first ever recording of John Clayton's hauntingly beautiful Before We Fall In Love with lyrics by Grammy/Oscar/Emmy Award winners, Marilyn and Alan Bergman - all culminating with the title track, Listen Here, a luscious ballad tailor-made for Jackie's rich alto (recorded mesmerizingly with Grammy Award winner Gerald Clayton). Give a ''Listen Here,'' and you will find, as others have, an extraordinarily versatile artist, now at the top of her game.